Sunday, September 1, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 1:30 (it was pouring and it had gotten cold so I put a blanket over my sheet before returning to bed, woke up at 6:30, finally getting up at 7:15.

Today we’re going to a new town named Carmen de Viboral. Teresa says it’s an hour and 15 minutes from terminal norte. I find it a little curious that we use the north terminal since the town appears to be southeast on the google map she showed me.

We left the apt just after 10am and when we got down to the garage she asked me if I had my jacket. I said, “you didn’t tell me I needed a jacket”. She replied, “this pueblo is cold”. We took the elevator back up to our floor and I grabbed my jacket. Back at the elevator it had gone down and Teresa had pushed both the up and down buttons. Why did she do that? The elevator came and I followed her on and it took the other passenger to the 6^th floor. He is the guy we rent our parking space to. I see now he lives 2 floor above our apt. The elevator took us down to the garage and we walked a block away where the metro bus passes. We only waited a couple minutes for it then gave up and headed down the hill. The entrance to Ave Las Vegas was “blocked” off by a single roll of that “caution” tape so obviously the bus wasn’t going to be coming through here. We walked about a hundred yards and there was a Gatorade tent set up in the street and after that there were hundreds of cups lying in the street on that side. Hmm, I thought “marathon”. We walked a hundred feet further and there was a Cristal water bottle tent followed by hundreds of empty plastic bottles lying in the street. Teresa asked a woman what’s going on and was told, “Medellin Marathon” started at something like 5am. We saw a couple stragglers come through with numbers pinned to their chests.

We continued on to Ayura station and took the next train to Caribe station. We walked a block on their overpass to the bus station. After asking at several windows we finally ended up at ticket window #2 where we bought 2 tickets to Carmen de Viboral for 24,000 pesos (about $3 apiece). We went outside and got the last 2 seats (not together) on the bus and the driver took his seat and we left.

We arrived at Carmen de Viboral an hour and 20 minutes later. It is a little cooler than Medellin, much cooler when the wind blows. Teresa asked a local for a good place to eat and she recommended La Frisolera which was the first restaurant we saw by the park, only a block from the bus terminal. I ordered the chicken breast and Teresa the bass which she wasn’t very pleased with.

We walked around the park and Teresa asked where the ceramics factory is and I think she was told 7 blocks up the hill. We looked around for a decent café but didn’t find one. Strange that a town know for their ceramics and I see people drinking coffee out of paper cups. Teresa asked someone for a good café and on the other side of the park and around the corner we found one that had good lattes. It obviously used to be someone’s home because instead of open space there were tables in separate rooms. And in the restroom you could see where the shower used to be. Different designs on our lattes.

Teresa worked on her latest art project while I scrolled through my phone.

We finally left at 4pm and walked down to the bus station and got on a bus that filled pretty quickly then left. Because of heavier traffic it was close to an hour and 40 minutes to return to terminal norte.

I don’t think we’ll be returning to this pueblo.

We took the metro to Ayura station and a taxi from there back to the apt.

We were back by 6:30 and the streets were a little wet so obviously they had a little rain.

We had a short rainstorm in the evening.

 

FUNNY SIGNS